A/N: Hi again! This is the first full-length chapter of UnReal and as you will likely see, it deviates from the canon storyline quite a bit, but I worked excruciatingly hard to make it as cohesive as I possibly could in order to work well with the version of Fallout 4 that I wanted to be able to tell. The story will be divided into "acts" labeled in Roman numerals for both yours and my convenience :)
With that being said, I hope you enjoy!
i.
The morning of October 23rd was beautiful. The sun was peeking curiously through the crimson and butternut leaves that adorned the maple trees throughout the idyllic neighborhood of Sanctuary. It was a picturesque Saturday that was surely destined to be a perfect day.
Yet here Nate was, knuckles white from gripping at the sink. There was a particular fire in his eyes that Tallulah hadn't seen since he'd been deployed. She couldn't help but laugh as her body slumped against the doorframe.
"You're not going to touch any hearts if you stare at the crowd like that, you oaf."
His head snapped backward and those light brown orbs of his bore holes into the smug look that dressed her face. Nate sighed in defeat, clearly perturbed by the events that the night held in store for him. Tallulah's smirk faded and her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth apologetically as she sauntered up to him. Her chin caught his shoulder and she pulled her body closer to his.
"I'm not good at this whole comforting thing, you know," She muttered as her eyelids flickered shut. She could feel his body relax slightly as he leaned into her. "I'm sorry for teasing you."
"I know, I know. I'm just... nervous. What if it's too much?"
"Don't second guess yourself, Nathaniel Williams." Tallulah broke away from him to adjust the clip that kept her curls semi-contained in a pathetic little side bun. As she went to make her leave, she called over her shoulder with a huff, "Besides, I'll kick anyone's ass who laughs at your speech."
Nate's deep laugh rumbled through the hallway.
"I knew I married the right woman. Thanks, babe."
Tallulah stretched her arms over her head as she entered the kitchen where Codsworth had been clanging around in the sink, washing the morning dishes. The robot spun around energetically the moment that he noticed her, a rag in one metal appendage and one of Shaun's bottles in the other.
"Hello, mum! The morning paper has been delivered and your coffee has been prepared!" Tallulah would never get used to that metallic British accent. "Black as always and brewed to perfection. Please do enjoy while I finish the morning chores."
With a nod, she slid onto one of the bar stools and pulled the mug close to her person before blowing some of the coffee's steam away.
"Thanks, Codsworth."
"You're absolutely welcome, mum!"
Not even moments after she'd taken her first sip, a wail echoed from Shaun's nursery. Tallulah's spine straightened in response to her son's cries and before she could excuse herself to tend to her baby, Codsworth had practically lurched at the opportunity to take care of the situation.
"Relax and enjoy your coffee, mum. I'll take care of young Shaun!" He called back, disappearing far more quickly than she could even think about protesting.
Tallulah sighed as Nate had finally emerged from the bathroom, a small smile replacing the previously frustrated grimace on his face. She cocked her head to the side and continued to nurse her coffee while he grabbed the seat next to her, grabbing the brand new Boston Bugle.
"We should take Codsworth to get serviced soon, don't you think?" He asked, flipping absentmindedly through the sheets. Tallulah ran a hand through her curls as she hummed flippantly in response.
Almost like clockwork, the doorbell chimed and Nate ushered her to answer it. She'd been ignoring the salesman for days now, hoping that he'd get the picture and just stop coming around. Alas, he had not, and would presumably continue to not until Tallulah verbally assaulted him into going away.
She ripped the door open, eyes narrowed down at the short, ginger-haired man. He cleared his throat and tipped his hat in greetings.
"Good morning! Vault-Tec calling!"
"Not interested," She'd said simply before allowing the door to slam right in the poor man's face. Nate shook his head and waved his hand about as Tallulah made her way back to the kitchen. "What?"
"That was terrible, Lu."
"Well, we're not interested."
"Be more engaging. Nicer. Our neighbors think you're a witch, you know."
Tallulah groaned dramatically before turning on her heel and stomping back to the door when it was reopened, the salesman perked up and offered her a grin which was met with a scowl.
"Sorry to be a pest, ma'am. I'm here in regards to your recent clearance for entry to Vault 111," He thrust a bundle of papers towards her with gusto. She took them in her hands apprehensively. He waited a moment for her to give the papers a once-over before he continued with his sales pitch. "I'm excited to finally be able to speak with you. This is a matter of utmost urgency, I assure you."
"Urgency?" Tallulah's eyes darted upwards to his, brow arched in curiosity. This didn't sound like what she'd expected.
"If you haven't noticed, ma'am, this country has gone to heck in a handbasket!" He cleared his throat once more, cheeks growing pink after his social faux-pas. She sighed and motioned for him to continue. "Excuse my language. The big kaboom is... inevitable, I'm afraid. It's coming sooner than we might think!... If you catch my meaning."
"Sure."
Tallulah didn't really consider "total nuclear annihilation". The opposing countries had been, in her words, flashing their dicks back and forth for years at this point. She was pretty positive that it just wouldn't happen. But her fingers caught her temple in thought where they massaged a vein. In the event that something were to happen... just in that single thought alone, her family's safety was her priority.
Tallulah heard Nate chortle in response to when she finally cut the representative off and asked for a pen. She'd be sure to give him shit for the whole "I told you so" crap he would be sure to pull later on. But with a few strokes of a pen, the Williams family had secured a safe (yet entirely improbable) future in the local vault. Just as a precaution, of course.
"Thank you for your time! I'll be sure to run these over to the vault as soon as possible!" The rep had to call through the crack of the door as it was once again shutting prematurely in his face.
Nate shot her a cocky smile as she approached him, prodding him in the side in a chastising manner before he sounded off about being proud of her for "doing the right thing". She scratched the back of his neck in affirmation and patted his back as Codsworth hovered out of Shaun's nursery, the infant's cries bouncing after him down the hall.
"Miss Tallulah, I do think that Shaun requires some of that maternal affection that you seem to be so good at."
Tallulah's cheeks dimpled with delight as she quickly made her way to the newborn's quaint red, white, and blue toned room (courtesy of Nate). Tallulah quietly shuffled over to cobalt confines of his crib and peered down at him with a smile. Her fingers danced along his sternum while she haphazardly whistled a little tune. He was almost instantaneously calmed by her touch, and she took a moment to brush one of his dark curls behind his ear while Nate stood in the doorway.
"Y'know, I fixed his mobile the other day. Why don't you give it a test drive?"
She bit the inside of her cheek to suppress a smile as she glanced back down at her boy after giving the little spaceship contraption a spin. A calming lullaby danced around them for a moment and Shaun giggled, little fingers extending towards the mobile.
"We could go to the park later," Nate poked his head over the edge of the crib and playfully stuck his tongue out at Shaun. He grabbed Tallulah's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Weather should hold up. We really should get out before it starts snowing."
"I guess," She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Ah, you're right. We should. Let's bring the camera."
Nate's deep laughter made her chest feel warm.
"Sounds like a date."
ii.
Everything after the alarms sounded was a blur.
Tallulah couldn't remember how her sneakers pounding against the pavement felt. She couldn't remember what the cloud of dust and radiation barreling towards her and her family felt like. She could not remember a single fucking thing. Especially not over the sound of her blood rushing into her ears or Shaun whimpering in her arms. The only thing that brought her back to reality was her husband's calloused hand on her shoulder. She'd gasped audibly but when she felt the current of his touch sting her skin, she was able to breathe again.
"That fucking happened, right?" Tallulah's voice was quiet and raspy from the overexertion that it took to sprint through the hills and to the vault in time. She swallowed hard and exhaled shakily while she brought Shaun closer to her breast. "That really fucking happened."
"Yeah," Nate was visibly shaken as well, but he was doing a damn remarkable job at retaining more composure than she was. But then again, nukes had just dropped onto their side of the fucking planet. "It did, but we're safe. We. Are. Safe."
We're safe, he'd said. And she took some comfort in it, she really did.
"At least we won't have to pay the mortgage anymore, right?"
Tallulah was the queen of sputtering out bad jokes at the most inopportune times, but this actually (somefuckinghow) made him smile, and he didn't shake his head this time. Right now, they needed all the distractions in the world.
The gate to the lift creaked open and artificial light flooded into the small space. People dressed in gaudy suits greeted them, one of which was a man that gave them brief instructions to head up the stairs where their "new lives" awaited. She didn't entirely like the sound of that. Nothing needed to be new, but the surface above was likely in flames. Everything was gone. Her heart dropped, but she took Nate's hand and allowed him to guide her up the stairs.
Her ears twitched when a man with a clipboard made a quiet remark about Shaun, and when she looked over at him, all he had to offer her was a smile. Something about it didn't look right.
Everyone here was almost mechanical in the way they interacted with the new, unfortunate residents. The woman who handed Nate their Vault suits donned a cloyingly sweet smile that made Tallulah's breakfast churn in her stomach. The cheerful woman then instructed them to follow the doctor down the corridor where they'd be able to finish up with this goddamned awkward orientation.
She had plenty of questions, but the one rational voice in her head instructed her to remain quiet. Just for now.
When they'd ventured deeper into the vault, Tallulah couldn't help but be unsettled by the clusters of pods that decorated the ugly concrete rooms. She took another deep breath and allowed Nate to comfort Shaun for a moment while she pulled on her suit. It was terribly tight and rather uncomfortable. Not at all fashionable like the woman up front had said. It made her feel like she was jammed tight into a sausage casing, but she had to grin and bear it for Nate and Shaun.
When she'd finished, she took Shaun back into her arms and joined lips with Nate. He held her in silence for a moment before whispering, "I love you" into her ear. She returned the sentiment before stepping into the pod as she was instructed. Decontamination, they'd said.
If it had only been decontamination things would have been just fine. But they weren't.
iii.
When the world finally started to fade back in, the only thing that registered to Tallulah was the body of her son trembling in her arms. A breath caught in her throat and she broke out into a fit of coughing as room temperature air assaulted her numb limbs. Her vision was unbelievably blurry and she could hardly breathe. What had happened?
Foreign hands intrusively grabbed her arms, and they were trying their damnedest to rip Shaun from her grasp. Tallulah's body pivoted side to side as she tried to keep the stranger from taking away her son.
"No– No! I've got him," She protested, her foot desperately trying to force the suited figure back. Shaun was screaming right alongside her. They were both confused and afraid. "Get the fuck away from us!"
In the midst of the chaos, the thick barrel of a revolver was jammed into her face. Tallulah was barely able to make out the scar that disfigured his face, but god, he was a sight to behold. He undulated a quick demand,
"Let the boy go."
"Get that gun out of my fucking face, you monster–"
The sharp snap of a gunshot and the sudden searing pain on the side of her head made her collapse back into the chamber. Tallulah could barely register the feeling of her son leaving her arms, and she was forced back into the darkness of the pod as the door latched back into place.
The last thing that the ex-detective could make out before she succumbed to the darkness of death could have been enough to defibrillate her entirely, but it didn't. It couldn't have.
"What a mess. Is the man alive at least?"
"No, it looks like he had a heart attack as we brought them out of cryo."
"Should've known this would've gone sideways somehow."
Opaque, inky patches obscured her vision before she finally gave in to the nagging exhaustion that plagued her brain. Tallulah knew that she was going to die someday but she never thought she'd die first and before her son.
There was no God here.
iv.
It was almost as if only an instant had passed. Maybe one second. Two at most, Tallulah was sure of that. It couldn't have been more than just a few minutes... could it?
How was she even alive?
Ice cleared out of her lungs with a hard cough and she slammed forward against the door of her damned torture pod as it was opening, only for her to collapse into an entirely crumpled heap on the slab of concrete that could never pass for a floor of what should have been a home for the people that had been carefully boxed up into freezers.
It took Tallulah but a few seconds to scramble to her feet and stumble over to Nate's pod. She slammed her fists on the control console, having not an ounce of knowledge for what button did what. Finally, after a long string of Spanish curses and frenzied smashing, the door hissed far too ominously before exposing Nate's stiff, cold body.
Oh no. No. No.
"Nate! Baby, wake up," She was shaking him violently, trying her hardest to wake him up. The deep russet color of his cheeks was now a pallid beige. He didn't even look like himself. "No. Nate, you have to help me find Shaun! Wait... Shaun–"
Tallulah's face dropped in recognition of what she had just said. Shaun was missing. Someone had come right into the vault and taken Shaun away from her. Not before shooting her, though. Speaking of which... she wasn't dead. She was living, breathing, and very much so alive.
Vibrantly so, even.
It took her a minute of pacing back and forth for her to recall what had happened in full; she was shot, yes, but the clawed clip that had been keeping her kinky curls together was shattered and little plastic pieces were tangled in her locks. The goddamned fucking clip saved her life. She laughed bitterly, hot tears collecting in the corners of her eyes as she wiped away crystals of blood from her scalp and moved back towards Nate. The tears finally spilled through her lashes as she gave him one final kiss.
"I'll find who did this, and I'll get Shaun back. I promise."